Spanish newspaper Sport report on Saturday that Aitor Karanka is close to becoming Leeds United manager.
It’s a theme popping up elsewhere in the Spanish media too, but there doesn’t appear to be direct information. Like in England, Karanka to Leeds seems to be based largely on speculation, that it makes a whole lot of sense.
With Leeds United going down a more Spanish route, and Victor Orta also linked with a move to Elland Road, Karanka is right now the obvious candidate.
Karanka has a good reputation in Spain, if only for being the good cop to Jose Mourinho’s bad cop. When it was all starting to go wrong at Madrid for the now Manchester United manager, Mourinho refused to speak to the media, and Karanka did it for him.
A much calmer approach came from the Spaniard, and it helped ease relations between the club and the Spanish media, just a little.
The Middlesbrough manager was repeatedly in the Spanish media during the January window for his chase of Jese Rodriguez.
Karanka wanted Middlesbrough to sign the player from PSG, but Jese clearly wasn’t interested and instead wanted to go to Las Palmas, where he hasn’t had the success some expected.
Targeting Jese and then going after him even though it was clear the player didn’t want to sign for Middlesbrough, wasn’t the best January move from Karanka and Orta. Middlesbrough supporters may say it typifies struggles in the transfer market.
Should Karanka take over at Leeds United, then the club will hope for better success in the transfer market than the manager achieved most recently with Middlesbrough.
